Good food makes you feel good!

Menu

Standing Up to Stress – Our 10 Day Challenge

Stress is probably one of the worst diseases that plagues our society today.

We spend so much of our time worrying about jobs, kids, significant others, health, and money, that we often don’t even realize how much our stress is effecting our bodies, our behaviour, our minds.

But there are ways that we can help combat this stress. Here are our favourite tips and techniques to calm your body, mind, and spirit, and not let stress get you down.

We are challenging you to take ten days and practice these tips and see if they have an effect on your well being.

1) Breathe. Feel upset? Something got you worried? Make you angry? Stop. Go outside. Find a tree or a garden or a patch of grass. Take a deep breath. Even better, take 10 long deep breaths.

2) Think Rationally and Express Yourself. After you’ve taken those deep breathes, think about what has happened. Are your emotions of anger or stress or worry going to fix the problem? Of course not. If anything, it will probably only make it worse. Once you’ve have calmed down, it is important to express yourself to a loved one or the person who has upset you. Letting someone know how you feel can release suppressed emotions.

3) Do Something That Soothes You. If you are able to, take a break to immerse yourself in something that makes you smile, soothes your soul, and calms your mind. Knit. Listen to or play music. Do a sun salutation. Have sex. Call someone you love. Play with your pet. Whatever it is, take at least 5 mins to make yourself smile.

4) Practice Yoga. I know – it’s what everyone is saying and talking about and doing these days. But maybe there’s a good reason for that? Yoga is the practice of meditation and harnessing your breath, mind and body. It calms, uplifts, energizes, and relaxes. http://www.yogatoday.com is an awesome site that has free weekly classes. Try it. Do it. Love it.

5) Take Supporting Supplements. Stress eats away a lot of essential nutrients, as well as creating an acidic environment in our bodies, causes loss of sleep, adrenal fatigue, and an innumerable amount of other things. Some must have supplements for those of you who live for stress – magnesium, greens supplement, adrenal support, vitamin B complex, and vitamins A, C and E.

6) Reduce Stress Enhancing Foods. This is the one you’re probably going to hate us for, but things like caffeine, alcohol and nicotine actually cause (and therefore increase) the same hormonal response in our bodies as stress, as well as having major impact on the way we use (and lose) nutrients. So having that crazy night out while you’re going through a stressful situation isn’t the answer!

7) Eat Mindfully. Because stress depletes so many nutrients so fast, proper nutrition and digestion are even more important. Eating in a stressed state inhibits our ability to digest properly. DO NOT eat on the run or have other distractions. This is the time to sit down at the dinner table, take a deep breath before eating, chew every bite thoroughly, put your fork down between bites, and be conscious of your meal and the entire process. This will help you with properly acknowledging when you are full, getting your digestive enzymes flowing, and help you digest thoroughly and properly.